Surface drifter measurements in the Western Equatorial Pacific Ocean Circulation Study (WEPOCS III) June 1988-December 1989

Abstract

Forty freely drifting drogued buoys were tracked by satellite in the western tropical Pacific from June 1988 to January 1, 1990, as part of WEPOCS III. The data consist of buoy trajectories and sea surface temperature and velocity along trajectories. The main results presented here are the collection of figures which show trajectories and time series data in the South Equatorial Current, the North Equatorial Countercurrent, the Mindanao Current, and the North Equartorial Current. One striking result is that we obtained the first quasi-synoptic map of surface velocity in this region that shows the major currents and their interconnections.